4) Cologne Cathedral / Kölner Dom - Cologne

5) Bundestag - Berlin

6) Heidelberg Castle - Heidelberg

7) Koenigsalle - Duesseldorf

8) Rhine Valley
between Bad Godesberg and Rüdesheim

9) Holstein Gate - Luebeck

10) Mosel Valley - between Trier and Koblenz



History of the website
and Tourism Marketing
in Germany
Visit Germany.com
Domain registration date : 15-08-1997
The domain was registered during
the early years of the internet,
eventually before
the German Tourist Bord
had the idea to make a website
see list of the oldest active vist domains.

Visit Germany.de
Domain registration date : before 2003

Germany.travel
Domain registration date: 13-01-2006

deutschland-tourismus.de
no longer used


History

German National Tourist Board
was founded 25-05-1948

The German name is
Deutsche Zentrale
für Tourismus (DZT).
Initially called
"Deutsche Zentrale
für Fremdenverkehr"

The organisation was founded
before the foundation of the present
Bundesrepublik Deutschland
20-09-1949.
Ludwig Erhard (1897 - 1977),
later Minister of Economy
and Chancelor of Germany
participated in the foundation of DZT.

The organisation promotes
Germany as a travel destination.
The organisation is linked
to a Government division,
the Ministry for Economy
and Klimate Protection (BMWK)

The web presence started
with the domain
deutschland-tourismus.de.
The domain is no longer in active use.

The current president of DTZ
is Petra Hedorfer.

The organisation has many members
like DB.de (Deutsche Bank
or LH.com (Lufthansa Airline),
Hotel Corporations
Airports
or Trade Fair Organisers.
Other members are
national Tourist Boards
like Visit Berlin.com .
or Visit NRW.com

The organisation
missed to get the domain
VisitGermany.com
when it was still available
or cheap to aquire.

While .com is recognised all over the world
and ccTlds like .de are know
in and beyond
their respective countries (Germany)
sTLDs also called sponsored TLDs
like .edu, .coop, .travel etc etc
are much less popular.

While there are 160 milion acitve .com,
18 million active .de
there are only 18.000 active .travel domains

sTLDs are usually used
by organisations
that arrived on the internet
at a later time
and that have small budgets.
While .travel domains remain active,
it's growth has been limited
in recent years.


Some Businesses and Organisations
that still use .travel
now consider if the TLD
aligns with audience engagement strategies
or if more widely recognised TLDs
in particular .com
might offer broader reach and recognition.

Morroc that has known a strong developmenet
and that used .travel in 2009
swithched to .com
See VisitMorocco.com


In the eyes of some
International Tourists
the webadress
doesn't make Germany
look as modern and professional
as they might expect.



Visit Domains
and Tourist Boards
in neighbouring countries
Germany has borders with 9 countries
Check out Tourist Information in these countries

Visit Austria.com
Visit Belgium.com
Visit Czechia.com
Visit Denmark.com
Visit France.com
Visit Netherlands.com
Visit Luxembourg.com
Visit Poland.com
Visit Switzerland.com